S~i> 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

OF HIS 

EXCELLENCY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

BY 

CHARLES HENRY 1 1 ART. LL.B., 



W^- 



UrprinleC from Introouction lo b'iMiognipljia JUiirolniaiia. 



ALBANY : 
JOEL MUNSELL. 

1870. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

OF HIS BXI I i I INI I 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 




IVE years ago the nation was called upon to give its utterance 
upon the fiendish crime committed at its national capital, on 
person of its chief magistrate ; and five years ago the 
writer of this monograph designed the present work to 
preserve and memoralize those utterances. To many this 
volume will appear to be nothing but a bald catalogue, of little value and 
less interest; a production showing very meagre results for five years of 
diligent labor expended in its preparation. Yet so it is, that in the field of 
literature, the bibliographers' task is that requiring the greatest patience 
and labor, with the least impressive results, as is quaintly said by Anthony 
a Wood, in the preface to his History of Oxford : " A painfull work it is I'll 
assure you, and more than difficult, wherein what toyle hath been taken, as 
no man thinketh, so no man believeth, but he hath made the triall," ' But 
is it therefore of the least value? Is it nothing to have preserved for future 
ages, a record of those products of the press, called forth by one of the 
greatest epochs in the nation's life ; to erect a library within one cover for 
the true historian, the one of fifty or a hundred years hence, to make choice 
ot the foundation whereupon to build his more enduring monument. It is 
with this aim alone that the Bibliographia Lincolniana has been executed. 
It was at first intended that it 2 should accompany the " Lite of President 
Lincoln," to be written by his old friend and law partner, the lion. William 
II. llerndon. of Springfield, Illinois, but this gentleman has desis'cd from his 
work, having decided that the time lias not yet arrived for the proper ap- 
preciation of such a work as his materials and knowledge of the subject 
would produce. It therefore appears in its present form. It had been the 
intention of the writer to add a biographical memoir, prepared solely from 
the works named in the following catalogue, giving extracts and selections 
from each ; but his manuscript prepared after this manner, was accidentally 
lost in its transmission to the printer, so that the following sketch must be 
accepted in its stead, his time not allowing him the labor of producing a 
duplicate of the first. 



1 When I state thai about twelve hundred letters were written, and ulioul ei-lil him 
ed letters and pamphlets received, in the preparation of this volume, it will be seen 
ion i- not greatly exaggerated. 



Abraham Lincoln was born cm the 12th of February, ISO! I, in llanlin, now 
Larue county, Kentucky, near Nolin creek, about a mile and a half from 
Hodgonvillo, the present county seal oi Larue ( 'ounty. His parents were ex- 
ceedingly poor and illiterate, the lather being neither able to read nor write, 
while the mother couldread but not write. Ot his progenitors the following 
facts are gleaned from the able eulogy, by Rev. Elias Nason, of North 
Billerica, delivered In-fore the New England Historic-! ienealogical Society, 
and Hon. Solomon Lincoln of Ilingham. 's " Notes on lh, Lincoln Family of 
Miimnrhusetts." 

The line of Mr. Lincoln's ancestry has been followed with certainty only 
to his great-grandfather, who emigrated about the middle of the last cen- 
tury from Berks county, Pennsylvania, to Rockingham county, Virginia. 
Where the Lincolns of Berks county came from, no record lias as ye1 di 
vulged. but they are believed to have been Quakers, and to have escaped 
from the intolerance of Massachusetts, to the friendly soil of Pennsylvania. 
The argument which tends most strongly to bind the ancestry of the late 
president to that of the distinguished Massachusetts Lincolns, is the great 
similarity of the Chistian names found in the two families, and one of these 
by no means a common one. Ilingham, Mass,, was formally settled Sep 
tcmber is, li;:i.">, by the Rev. Peter llobart and twenty nine others, who 
drew house lots on that day. In the next year house lots were granted to 
Thomas Lincoln the miller, Thomas Lincoln the weaver, and Thomas Lin- 
coln the cooper, and later still or in 1637, to Samuel Lincoln brother of 
Thomas the weaver. Samuel Lincoln, of this family the fourth original 
sett lei, had four sons: Samuel, Daniel, Mordecai and Thomas. Mordecai 
Lincoln hail a son Mordecai, bom April 24th, HiSlj, and another named Abra- 
ham, born Jan. 13th, 1689. Here we have the three names. Mordecai, Thomas 
and Abraham in frequent and familiar use. In Iiiipjtxs History of l'„ r/,s ,t„il 
LiIhiiuhi Cuiiiitii-x, Piiutsi/friiiiiii, we find that among the taxalde inhabitants 
of Exeter. Berks county, soon after its organization in 17-">2. were Mordecai 
Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln: also, that Thomas Lincoln was living in 
Reading as early as 1757, and that Abraham Lincoln was one of the repre- 
sentatives from Berks county, in 1782-5 and a member of the convention for 
the framing of the constitution of the state in 178!t-!l0. In a correspondence 
held in 1848 between the late president while a member of congress, and 
lion. Solomon Lincoln of Ilingham, the former stated : " My father's name 
is Thomas, my grandfather's was Abraham, the same of my own. My 
grandfather went from Rockingham county in-Virginia, to Kentucky about 
tin Mar 1782, and two years afterwards was killed by the Indians. We 
have a vague tradition that my great-grandfather went from Pennsylvania 
to Virginia, and that he was a Quaker. Further than this, I have never 
heard anything. It may do no harm to say that ' Abraham ' and ' Mordecai ' 
an- common names in our family." Iu a subsequent letter, he says: "I 
have mentioned that my grandfather's name was Abraham. He had. as I 
think I have heard, four brothers, Isaac, Jacob, Thomas and John. He had 
three sons, Mordecai, Josiah and Thomas, the last my father. My uncle 
Mordecai had three sons, Abraham, James and Mordecai : uncle Josiah had 
several daughters and an only son Thomas. My father has an only child, 
mysolfofcourse. This is till I know certainly on the subject of names ; it 



is, however, my father's understanding thai Abraham, Mordecai and Thomas 
are old family names of ours." At the present day the above notes and sur- 
mises are all thai ran be offered iu regard to the connection of the two fami- 
lies, and we shall have to wait for time to develop the hidden farts requisite 
to prove the descent from the same source. 

Tin una? Lincoln, the father of the president, was born in Virginia about the 
year 17TS, so that he was a mere iufant at the period of his father's removal 
to Kentucky, and not much more when in 1784, while at work in the field, a 
short distance from his cabin, he was stealthily approached by an Indian, 
and shot dead. In 1806, when Thomas was in his twenty-eighth year, he 
married Nancy Hanks,' like himself a Virginian by birth, and took her to 
the humble log cabin, where three years later was born the future president 
of the United States. They had three children, a daughter who married 
Aaron Grigs by when she was but fourteen years of age, and died shortly 
afterwards, and two sons, Abraham, named from his grandfather, and 
Thomas, who died in infancy, In 1816, when Abraham was but seven 
years old, his father removed from Kentucky and settled iu Spencer county, 
Indiana, where three years later his mother died, the mother of whom in 
after years, with tears in his eyes, he said : " All that I am or hope to be, I 
owe to my angel mother." Her grave lies, unmarked, near the village of 
Gentryville, Spencer county, Indiana; but the first use that her reverent 
sun put the little education he had acquired after her death, was to indite 
an epistle to an itinerant minister of the Baptist church, by the name of 
Elkin, whom he had once heard preach before his immigration from Ken- 
tucky, asking him to come and perform religious services over her grave, 
which he accordingly did about a t wel ve month after she had been laid to rest. 
Although it has been stated, aud on uo poorer authority than the late presi- 
dent himself, that the aggregate of all the school education of his life could 
be embraced within the limits of one year, still it seems that in this short space 
of time he was under the charge of no less than five teachers, two, Riuey and 
Caleb Hazel in Kentucky, and Andrew Crawford, Sweeney and Dorsey in 
Indiana. It is to Andrew Crawford that the story is told of the president's 
" [Hilling fodder," for three days, to pay for a Life of Washington. It hap- 
pened in this wise : Lincoln borrowed from his teacher a copy of Ramsey's 
Lift of Washington, which he carelessly left in an open window, when a 
shower coming on it was drenched and nearly ruined. Hastening to his 
teacher i n great grief and alarm, he explained the accident and offered to work 
out the worth of the book's damage, which he did in the manner detailed, 
and was rewarded for his behavior by being presented with the book. The 
two works with which he became best acquainted iu his youth, were ./•>../, ',-< 
Fables and Banyan's Pilgrim's Progress. And who can follow the record 
of his life without easily detecting the effect they had upon the develop- 
ment of two of his distinguishing characteristics — his legend of anecdote and 
reverence for religion. 

In the autumn of 1819, somewhat more than a year after the death of 
Abraham's mother, his father married again, this time a widow lady with 
thn-e children, Mrs. Sally Johnston of Eli/.abethtown, Kentucky. I think 
it is to this lady more than to his own mother that he is indebted for his 
g 1 i-arly training and formation of character. And from tin- following 



letter in possession of the writer written to his step-brother, her own son. 
it will be seen that he was much more chary of her rights than her own 
flesh and blood. It bears the superscription, " John D. Johnston, Charles- 
ton, Coles county, Illinois," and is dated. " Springfield, Nov. 25, 1851," and 
reads as follows : 

Dear Brother: Your letter of the 22d is just received. Your proposal 
about selling the East forty acres of land is all that I want or could claim 
for myself, but I am not satisfied with it on Mother's account. I want her 
to have her living, and I feel that it is my duty, tosome extent, to see that 
she is not wronged. She had a right of dower (that is the use of one-third 
for life) in the other two forties; but it seems she has already let you take 
that, hook and line. She now has the use of the whole of the East forty, as 
long as she lives; and if it be sold of course she is entitled to the interest 
on all the money it brings as long as she lives ; but you propose to sell it 
for three hundred dollars, take one hundred away with you, and leave her 
two hundred, at 8 per cent, making her the enormous sum of sixteen dollars 
a year. Now. if you are satisfied with treating her in that way. I am not. 
It is true, that vim are to have that forty for two hundred dollars,./' Mother's 
death ; but you are not to have it before. I am confident that land can he 
made to produce for Mother at least s:i() a year, and I cannot, to oblige any 
living person consent that she shall be put on an allowance of sixteen dol- 
lars a year. Yours, &c, 

A Lincoln. 

This lady in her eightieth year was still living at the time of the president's 
death, near Farmington, Coles county, Illinois. 

At the age of nineteen Mr. Lincoln made his first " strike out from home," 
taking charge of a flat boat and itscargo for the sugar plantations near New 
Orleans. During the laborious voyage he and his only companion, a son of 
his employer, successfully defended themselves against an attack made at 
night by a bund of negroes for the purposes of plunder, and escaping un- 
hurt reached their destination, disposed of their freight and returned to their 
homes in safety. In March, 1830, Abraham having just completed his 
majority, started with his father and family from their Indiana home and 
after a tedious journey of fifteen days halted on the banks of the Sangamon 
river, neai Decatur, Maconcounty, Illinois. It was at this era in his life that 
lie acquired the epithet afterwards used towards him of" the rail-splitter of 
Illinois," he having split rails enough to fence in a lot of ten acres, the di- 
mensions of his lather's new home. Here, however, the family did not remain 
long. Finding the locality unhealthy they removed to Coles county in the 
same state, where old Thomas -Lincoln died January lTth, 1851, in his 
seventy-third year. Having cut entirely loose from his family after their 
removal to Coles county, we next find Lincoln hired by a man named otlntt 
to build a fiat boat at twelve dollars per month, which when completed he 
took to New Orleans, with a drove of hogs, for his employer. On his return 
his em plover placed him in charge of a store and mill at New Salem. Menard 
county, Illinois. It was while young Lincoln was engaged in the duties. .f 
tending Btore, that he borrowed from an acquaintance a copy of Kirkham's 



English grammar ami commenced its study. The identical book used by Mr. 
Lincoln is now in the possession of Capt. R. R. Rutledge, with whose father 
Mr. Lincoln lived about this time. 11 is name, together with several remarks, 
originally appeared on the fly leaf, but the leaf has been torn out. In this 
connection it may be of interest to state, that the writer has in Ms possession 
a page of Mr. Lincoln's copy-book made in 1824, when he was fifteen years 
old. It is of ordinary foolscap size, and has written across the bottom in 
large characters, " Abraham Lincoln's Book." This interesting relic was 
presented to the writer, together with many others of a similar character, by 
his valued friend the Hon. William II. Herndon of Springfield, Illinois, to 
whom he is indebted for much valuable information. 

It was in the spring of 1832, that the skirmishes with the Sac Indians 
began, known in history as the Black Hawk war, whereupon Governor 
Reynolds, of Illinois, issued his call for volunteers, and among the first to 
offer themselves was Abraham Lincoln, who was almost unanimously elected 
captain of a company, formed in Menard county, from among his friends and 
neighbors. There was no lighting to be done, so the captain and his com- 
pany had no chance of distinguishing themselves on the field, except in the 
manner described in the following extract from a speech delivered by Mr. 
Lincoln, when a member of congress, upon the nomination of General Cass, 
for the presidency, — the general's friends having endeavored to endow their 
hero with a military reputation. "By the way, Mr. Speaker," said Mr. 
Lincoln, "do you know I am a military hero? Fes, sir, in the days of the 
Black Hawk war, I fought, bled and came away. Speaking of General 
Cass's career reminds me of my own. 1 was not at Stillman's defeat, but 
I was about as near it as Cass to Hull's surrender; and like him I saw the 
place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, 
for I had none to break ; but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion 
* * If General Cass went in advance of me in picking whortleberries, I 
guess I surpassed him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any 
live, lighting Indians, it was more that I did, but I had a good many bloody 
struggles with the mosquitoes; and although I never fainted from loss of 
blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry." 

Mr. Lincoln returned home but about ten days before the state election 
and was immediately solicited to become a candidate for the legislature, on 
the Clay ticket, to which position however he was not elected. It was dur- 
ing this canvas that he made his first political speech, and sufficiently is it 
characteristic of the man to find a place here. He said : " Gentlemen, fel- 
low-citizens, I presume you all know who I am, I am humble Abraham 
Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for 
the legislature. My politics are short and sweet. I am in favor of a national 
bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement system, and a high pro- 
tective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected 
I shall be thankful, if not it will lie all the same." After tin' election Mr. 
Lincoln entered into partnership with a man named Berry, in the town ol 
New Sali -m ; but tin- latter proving a wild, dissipated telle iw.the business soon 
became a wreck. He was then appointed postmaster of the town by Presi- 
dent Jackson, and about the same time became deputy surveyor of the 
county. Not having the slightest knowledge of surveying, he borrowed 



the necessary books from Lis chief, and after much arduous study procured 
a compass and chain and entered upon his duties. lie had not been long 
engaged in his new employment, when his implements were attached for a 
d. lit of the old firm and sold, but generously purchased by a friend of his, 
one James Short, and gratuitously given back. In 1834, he became again a 
candidate for the legislature, and this time was elected by the highest vote 
cast for any candidate. To the same legislature was chosen Major John T. 
Stuart, whom Mr. Lincoln had known as a captain in the Black Hawk war. 
Major Stuart was one of the then leaders of the Springfield bar, and urged 
and encouraged Mr. Lincoln to study the law and make it his profession ; 
enforcing his advice by offering him the loan of any law hooks he might 
have in his possession. Mr. Lincoln was not loth to accept this offer, and 
at the close of the session returned to his home in New Salem " with a load 
of borrowed legal lore," and began its study with "feat diligence. 

In 1836, Mr. Lincoln was re elected to the legislature, and, in the autumn 
of the same year, was admitted to the bar. We do not know tie 
date of his admission, but he could not have been very long unemployed, for 
the writer has in his possession the original autograph praecipe, issued by 
Mr. Lincoln for the writ in his first case. It is sufficiently curious and in- 
teresting to find a place here, and is as follows: 
DAVID WOODBBIDGE, ) Trespassw . etarmis 

II.VWTIK.KXE. f DamageS I500m 

The < !lerk of the Sangamon Circuit Court, will issue 
a Summons returnable to the next Term of Mar. Sangamon < 'ircuit t 'ourt 
October 8th, 1836. A. Lincoln. 

It was at the nest session of the Legislature, that Abraham Lincoln and 
Stephen A. Douglas met for the first time, and little then did these two men 
think of the important relations they were to hold in after life towards each 
other. The most prominent act of the session was that of removing the 
capital of the state from Vandalia to Springfield, ami so active a part did 
Mr. Lincoln take in effecting this measure, that he was solicited to remove 
his residence to the new capital, which he accordingly did in the spi 
1837, and became a partner in the practice of the law, with his former ad- 
viser. Major Stuart. This partnership, under the name of "Stuart tV Lincoln," 
lasted about two years. Mr. Lincoln then formed a business connection 
with lion. S. T. Logan, the firm being " Logan & Lincoln," which continued 
until 1843. The next year he formed his third and last partnership, that of 
•■ Lincoln & Ilerndon," which was only closed by the tragedy of April, '65. 
rpon the breaking up of Mr. Lincoln's second partnership, caused mainly 
by both members of the firm having similar political aspirations, he accosted 
his future partner and best friend, then quite a young and rather obscure 
practitioner, with, " Billy, let us go into business together !" which proposi- 
tion Mr. Ilerndon thankfully accepted. Mr. Lincoln arranged the terms oi 
partnership, and during the twenty-one years they were partni is together, 
they never kept a separate account, but held each others money as they did 
their own, and never suspected nor experienced a wrong, and never had a 
misunderstanding nor a grievance. "When Mr. Lincoln was abouf to leave 



for Washington, he went to his friend and partner, and rather mournfully 
addressing him, as he was went, with the familiar " Billy," said, " you aud 
I have been together all these years, anil have never ' passed a word,' will you 
let my name stay on the old sign till I come back from Washington V" The 
answer need not be repeated, guffieit to say that it did honor to the heart 
that fathered it. aud to the day of the assassination, all tin- business of that 
office was carried on in the name of " Lincoln & Herndon ;" and his name 
was allowed to stay on the old sign till he came back from Washington, 
but, alas, how differently was that return, to the way he expected, when he 
uttered those feeling words. As a lawyer, Mr. Lincoln had a good local 
reputation among his associates, but the jurisprudence of the West in his 
day, has entitled few men to enduring honor and distinction. Perhaps the 
most prominent case in which he was engaged, was McGormick vs. Manny, 
when he represented the defendant, in one of the numerous cases involving 
the question of the infringement of the patent of McCormick's celebrated 
reaper. It is worthy of note, that in this case he was opposed by Messrs. 
Seward and Stanton, two of his future counsellors and cabinet officers. This 
reference to a patent cause, a class of cases in which Mr. Lincoln was not 
infrequently engaged, occasions a good opportunity to refer to a mechanical 
invention of his own, which was patented and now finds rather a conspicu- 
ous place among the models in the Patent Office, at Washington. It was 
for the purpose of enabling steam boats to float overthe shoals and snags of 
the western rivers, and consists simply of a sort of bellows-like apparatus, 
which being pumped full of air, would give the vessel additional buoyancy 
when it was required. The idea was quaint but not practical, and like so 
many other similar attempted appliances of mechanical theories to practical 
use, only lended its aid in cumbering up the official department, where all 
such inventions register their birth, and not a few find burial also. 

In 1S38, Mr. Lincoln was re-elected to the legislature of his state, and 
again in 1840. for the last time. In 1842, having arrived at his thirty-third 
year, he was married on November 4th, to Miss Mary Todd, a daughter of 
Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. The issue of this union was four sons : 
Robert Todd, who was graduated at Harvard University, in 18(34, and sub- 
sequently was attached to the staff of General Grant, aud is now prac- 
ticing law in Chicago ; Edward, who died in infancy : William, who died in 
Washington during Mr. Lincoln's administration, and Thomas, familiarly 
known as Tad, his father having conferred this sobriquet upon him while 
an infant in arms, by playfully calling him Tadpole. He is now with his 
mother residing abroad. 

It was a year or two before his marriage that Mr. Lincoln voluntarily 
placed himself in the position to receive a challenge to fight a duel, from 
James Shields, afterwards a senator in congress, and more recently a general 
in the late war. The story of the occurrence is worthy of being related, as 
showing the chivalric spirit of the young man. A sharp sarcastic poem 
appeared in the Siiiiijiiiiihu .Lmriuil, edited at the time by a man named 
Simeon Francis, which was obviously addressed to Shields, although his 
nameof course did not appear. He went to the editor and demanded the 
name of the author, otherwise he would hold him personally responsible 
The editor asked for a day to consider whether he would reveal the i 



10 

I ributor's uame, which being granted, he immediately applied to Mr. Lincoln 
for aid and counsel in the matter, the lines having been handed to him in 
the hand-writing of Miss Todd, who was then supposed to hold a relation 
to Mr. Lincoln, which after events proved might have had mere foundation 

than at the time appeared. The fact was that she had only copied them 
from the manuscript of the author, a young lady friend. Mr. Lincoln at 
once told Francis to say to Shields, that he might hold him responsible for 
the poem. The result was a challenge from the hot blooded young Irishman 
to meet him and cleanse the insult with " honor's We purifier:" The chal- 
lenge was promptly accepted, and the choice of weapons being Mr. Lincoln's, 
he selected broadswords, for the reason as he afterwards gave, that his arms 
being long, he believed that without hurting Shields, he could protect him- 
self. This, however, happily was unnecessary, the interference of friends 
easily effecting an arrangement of the matter and a reconciliation between 
the parties, although not until after they had reached tin- spot selected tor 
the combat, a place called Bloody island, lying in the Mississippi river, 
between Illinois and Missouri. 

In 1N44, occurred the great presidential campaign between Polk and Clay, 
and it was as a candidate for presidential elector, that Mr. Lincoln first he- 
came generally known to the people of his state, outside of his own imme- 
diate home and circle, and the subsequent defeat of Mr. Clay, was to him a 
great and sad disappointment. A few years later, Mr. Lincoln had the 
opportunity of meeting his great political idol and receiving an invitation, 
to visit him at his home at Ashland, which was greedily accepted ; but the 
result of the interview was most unsatisfactory and showed to the worshiper 
that his " idol was but of clay." 

In 1846, Mr. Lincoln had his wishes gratified by receiving tin- nomination 
tor congress, from the Sangamon district. To this position he had aspired 
at the last election two years before ; but was chosen a delegate to the nomi- 
nating convention with instructions to vote for the late Edward 1>. Baker; 
in regard to which be said, in a letter to a friend in Kentucky, "in trying 
to o,.| the nomination for Baker, I shall lie ' fixed ' a g I deal like tie- fel- 
low who is made groomsman to the man who has 'cut him out' and is 
marrying his own gal." The election proved successful, and Mr. Lincoln took 
his seat in the thirtieth congress, December 0th, 1847. the only Whig mem- 
ber from Illinois. Tins was perhaps the ablest and stormiest congress that 
ever assembled in our country. Debate ran high between wings and demo- 
crats, on tariffs, rivers and harbor improvements, the rights of petition, the 
abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia, and last, but far from least, 
the Mexican war. Mr. Lincoln all through the session, with one exception, 
voted consistently and religiously with his part} . for he was always in the 
broadest sense a loyal party man. He was opposed to the Mexican war 
from principle, and on the 2'3d of December. 1S4T. introduced a preamble and 
set of resolutions of inquiry, criticising the messages of the president, and 
throwing the ro~pou~iliilit\ for the ■ first aggressions upon the administration. 
for sending a hostile force across the boundary line in opposition to 
vice of General Taylor, who said : " That in his opinion, no such movement 

■ i ■ssary to the def.ne • protection of Texas." These resolutions 

laid over under the rule of the house and wen- not called up again by Mr. 



11 

Lincoln, but they formed the basis of his first elaborate speech in congress, 
which was delivered on the 12th of January of the following year. On the 
first of June, 1848, the National whig convention met at Philadelphia, to 
nominate a candidate for the presidency, and Mr. Lincoln was among its 
delegates and gave his voice and vote for General Taylor ; returning to 
congress, which was still sitting, he made a speech in support of his candi- 
date, in the course of which he made the remarks regarding General < lass's 
military career repeated in our reference to the Black Hawk war. Upon the 
adjournment of congress, which was not until the middle of August, lie made 
a short tour into New England, and spoke several times in favor of the elec- 
tion of General Taylor. It is to meeting him in the streets of Worcester, at 
this time, that Governor Bullock so felicitously refers in his able eulogy 
before the citizens of that town. It was at the second session of this con- 
gress that the Gott resolutions were brought forward, for the abolition of 
slavery in the district of Columbia, and Mr. Lincoln recorded his vote against 
the measure, together with such men as Pendleton, Stephens and Toombs. 
He subsequently himself offered a substitute for these resolutions, providing 
for the gradual emancipation of the slaves in the district, by the purchase of 
those then slaves by the government of the United States, for their full value, 
and the freedom of all subsequently born. No definite action was taken 
upon this substitute, and it remained among tin- unfinished business of the 
session. His action in regard to this matter shows plainly that he regarded 

slaves as property under th istitution. Slavery was to him, as it was to 

thousands of his fellow citizens, legally rigid and morally wrong, and it was 
on this strong foundation, that its overthrow was so steadily contested ; 
and it was not until the measure was forced upon him by the necessities of 
the country, that he overrode those rights guarantied by the constitution and 
extinguished slavery by one fell blow. 

Mr. Lincoln's congressional career ended March 4th, 1849, and he was 
succeeded by his former opponent, the late eloquent and gifted Edward D. 
Baker, who so gallantly fell at the Ball's Blufl massacre. When General 
Taylor entered office, Mr. Lincoln was a candidate for the appointment of 
commissioner of the general land office, but he was unsuccessful ; he was, 
however, tendered the position of secretary, and then of governor of Ore- 
gon, both of which he declined. On returning home, Mr. Lincoln entered 
vigorously upon the arduous dutiesof his profession, and devoted himself to 
them during a number of years following, but it is not to be supposed that 
the great political convulsions of 1850-54 found him indifferent to the re- 
sult. This period of his career has been so fully brought before the public 
during the last decade of years, that the writer does not propose to touch 
upon it, more than to mention that his first attempt at what might be 
termed a semi-literary undertaking, was produced at this time, when he 
was invited to eulogize his old hero, Henry Clay, who had deceased in the 
month of June. 1852. It was considered we believe a failure, his forte not 
lying in that direction. Passing over the complimentary vote given to Mr. 
Lincoln for the nomination of vice-president at the Philadelphia Convention 
of June, 1856, which nomimated Fremont and Dayton for its candidates in 
the presidential campaign, which elected Mr. Buchanan, we reach his great 
senatorial contest of ten years later, with the " little Stephen ' .agin't .J( 



12 

Douglas, which really hist brought Mr. Lincoln prominently before the 
country, and then, it was principally owing to his connection with his great 
opponent that bis name became so universally known. The two candidates 
canvassed the state together, speaking at the same place on the same day. 
It was conducted with marked ability on both sides, and awakened consider- 
able interest. Mr. Lincoln showed himself in debate, not far behind the 
recognized leader of the democratic party in congress, and the avowed 
aspirant for the presidential chair: but there being a democratic majority 
in the legislature, Mr. Lincoln was of course defeated. On being asked by 
a friend how he felt after his di feat he said. " Very much like the stripling 
who had bruised his toe, "too bad to laugh and too big to cry." Mr. 1 long . 
las. in his lirst speech at the opening of this remarkable campaign, makes 
this allusion to his antagonist " I take- great pleasure in saying that 1 have 
known personally and intimately for about a quarter of a century the worthy 
gentleman who has been nominated for my place, and I will say that I regard 

him as a kind, amiable and intelligent gentleman, ag 1 citizen, and an 

honorable opponent, and whatever issue I may have with him will be of 
principle anil not of personalities." In the winter of L858, Mr, Lincoln 
wrote in the form of a lecture a comprehensive history of inventions, begin- 
ning with the early ages, and ending with the latest productions of inven- 
tive art. This lecture was delivered once or twice, but like his only other 
attempt of a similar character, his eulogy on Clay, was most unsatisfactory. 
It was also" in this year that Mr. Charles Lanman was preparing for publi- 
cation his " Dictionary of Congress " and in reply to an application made to 
Mr. Lincoln for a sketch of his life, received the following concise memo- 
randum : 

Born, February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. Education defec- 
tive. Profession, a lawyer. Have been a captain of volunteers in the Black 
Hawk war. Postmaster at a very small office. Four times amember of 
the Illinois Legislature : and was a member of the lower house of Congress. 

Yours, 
A. Lincoln. 

Towards the close of the next year, Mr. Lincoln had the opportunity 
offered him of speaking face to face to an eastern audience, by an invita- 
tion being extended to him to lecture in Brooklyn, at Plymouth church. 
He accepted the invitation conditioned on being allowed to make a political 
speech, and appointed the following 27th of February for its delivery. The 
speech, which it was finally concluded should be delivered at the Cooper 
Institute, New York, under the auspices of the Young Men's Republican 
1'nion, was by many regarded as the best and most elaborate he ever made. 
It was very widely circulated and read, ami prepared the minds of the 
1 pie for his nomination for the presidency. Ib-spent several daysin New- 
York after its delivery, and then made his second visit to New England, 
speaking in several places on the political questions of the day. The agita- 
tions in the political world were rapidly increasing and insinuating themselves 
into the minds of the people more and more, as it became manifest to them 
I hat the life and existence oft he nation depended upon their action on t lie new 
topics now daily arising. Then fast followed the conventions of ISaltiinorc, 



13 

Richmond and Chicago, each with its own pet party candidate for the presi- 
dential chair, and as the name of Abraham Lincoln was sent forth as one of 
the nominees, the inquiring voice of the multitude cried out, " and who is 
Abraham Lincoln?" At this day, that such could have been the case, 
seems almost impossible, but nevertheless it is surely true; and now no 
name of the last half century is so widely known and respected. Mr. Lin- 
coln was at Springfield in the office of the Slate Journal, when he received 
a telegraphic dispatch informing him of his nomination. He looked at it 
in silence while those around him were rending the air with their shouts, 
and then putting it into his pocket quietly said : " There is a little woman 
down at our house would like to hear this, I'll go down and tell her." 

On the 6th of November the election took place throughout the whole 
country, and what the result was is too well known to need a repetition 
here. And now began a new life for him ; from this moment to the hour of 
his death, he knew not what quiet or leisure was ; in accepting the presi- 
dency he resigned his privacy. He was no longer his own master, but the 
very servant of those over whom he was a chosen master. On the eleventh 
of the following February. Mr. Lincoln bade a long farewell to his home in 
Springfield, and set out on his journey for the national capital. From the 
platform of the car, just as he was starting, he addressed his friends and 
neighbors these beautiful and touching words : 

" My friends : No one not in my position can realize the sadness I feel at 
this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more 
than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born and here one of 
them lies buried. I know not how soon 1 shall see you again. I go to 
assume a task more difficult than that which has devolved upon any other 
man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except 
for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel 
that I cannot succeed without the same divine blessing which sustained 
him ; and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support. 
And I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine 
assistance, without which I cannot succeed, and with which success is cer- 
tain. Again I bid you all an affectionate farewell." 

The deep religious feeling which pervades this speech, marked him to the 
close of his life. In nearly all his public messages, proclamations, and 
papers of every kind, he recognized our dependence upon Hod as individuals 
and as a nation, not in the formal phrases of his predecessors and successors, 
but in heartfelt words, showing the Christian spirit to be the all pervading 
mainspring of his life. He had faith in the higher law ; in the higher law- 
giver. 

From Springfield Mr. Lincoln went to Indianapolis, and from a brief 
speech delivered here, the outside world obtained the first glimpse of his 
intended future policy. Visiting Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh. Cleve- 
land, Buffalo, Albany, New York, and Trenton, he arrived in Philadel- 
phia on the eve of Washington's birth-day loGl. Here it was that the plot 
to assassinate him during his passage through Baltimore was fully unfolded 
to him. Mr. Lincoln having listened to the detailed statement of Mr. Allan 
Piukerton, chief of the National Police Agency, who with his assistants had 
been mainly instrumental in discovering the conspiracy, said, that he had 



14 

promised to raise the American Flag over Independence Hall the following 
morning, and also hail accepted an invitation to a reception by the Pennsyl- 
vania legislature in the afternoon of the same day — " Both of these engage- 
ments 1 will keep if it costs me my life. If, however, after I have con- 
cluded these engagements, you can take me in safety to Washington, I will 
place myself at your disposal, and authorize you to make such arrangements 
as you may deem proper for that purpose." The next morning Mr. Lincoln 
was formally received in Independence Hall, and afterwards performed the 
ceremony according to his promise of raising the Hag over the " birth place 
of our liberties." In the afternoon of the same day he arrived in Harris- 
burgh, and attended the reception given him by the legislature of the state. 
Here he remained till nearly six o'clock in the evening, when accompanied 
by Colonel Ward II. Lamnn he was quietly driven to the depot of the Penn- 
sylvania Rail Road Company, and took a special train which was in waiting. 
for Philadelphia, where he arrived in t ime to take the regular eleven o'clock 
through night train for Washington, reaching his destination safely at the 
usual hour, on the morning of Saturday the 23d. The city of Washington 
was thrown into a flutter of excitement by this unexpected arrival. Mr. 
Lincoln's opponents ridiculed his fears, and his suppporters felt equally 
ashamed thai their chosen chief should have consented to sneak into the 
capital "like a thief in the night." But the rapidly developing events soon 
showed that the proper course had been pursued. Mr. Lincoln, long after- 
wards in speaking of the occasion, said to the Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, of Illi- 
nois : " I did not then, nor do I now, believe I should have been assassinated. 
had I gone through Baltimore as first contemplated, hut 1 thought it wise- 
to run no risk, when no risk was necessary." For a full, graphic and au- 
thentic statement of the facts pertaining to this event, the author would 
refer to the" History and evidence of the passage of Abraham Lincoln from 
Hariisliurgh. Pa., to Washington, D. C, on the 22d and 23d of February, 
lSI'il," written by the chief agent in its detention, and published at Chicago 
early in the year 18G8. 

The days preceding the inauguration passed in rapid succession, until the 
morning of the fourth of March broke beautifully clear, and found the vene- 
rable generalissimo of tin- army of the Tinted Slates prepared for any 
emergency. All tin' necessary arrangements forthe ceremony having been 
completed, at a few minutes past one, President Buchanan entered the sen- 
ate chamber with the president elect, lion. E. P. Baker then a senator 
from Oregon, introduced his old friend to the assembly, but there was no 
very hearty welcome given to Mr. Lincoln as he stepped forward to read his 
inaugural address. On its conclusion the oath of office was" administered by 
the chief justice of the United States. Hon. Roger Brooke Taney. His ad- 
dress was marked by a moderate and conciliatory tone, containing no reproach 
to the south, no menace and no threat. On the other hand, it leaned 
towards them ; it assured them of certain protection of all their old rights 
under the constitution, and closed with these words of warning and cut real \ 

" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not mine, is the 
momentous issue of civil war. Tin- government will not assail you, you 
can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. i"ii davi uo 
oath registered in heaven to destroy the govern nt. while I have the 



15 

most solemn one " to preserve, protect and defend it." " I am loth to close. 
We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though pas- 
sion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mys- 
tic cords of memory, stretching from every battle field and patriot grave to 
every living heart and hearth-stone all over this broad land, will yet swell 
the chorus of the union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the 
better angels of our nature." 

The address delivered, and the oath administered, the august ceremonies of 
the occasion were concluded, and passing back through the senate chamber, 
the sixteenth president of the United States was escorted to his future resi- 
dence, the White House. His first official act was the formation of his cabi- 
net, and of the seven chosen to be his counsellors, four had been rival candi- 
dates with him for the presidental nomination. On the loth of April, 1861, 
the third day after the bombardment of Fort Sumter was commenced. 
President Lincoln issued his proclamation and call for seventy five thousand 
men, to " suppress treasonable combinations and cause the laws to be duly 
executed." This proclamation and the imminent danger of the govern- 
ment united the north. The fall of Sumter, was the resurrection of patriot- 
ism. Four days later a temperate proclamation of blockade was made, and 
the nation stood calmly on the defensive while the south was making the 
most strenuous efforts for the aggressive. Seeing this the president con- 
vened Congress on the fourth of July, 1861, and asked for four hundred 
thousand men and four hundred million dollars. Congress acted with the 
utmost promptness and liberality, voting five hundred thousand men, and 
five hundred million dollars, in aid of the war. Thus not only sustaining 
the president, but giving him one hundred thousand more men, and one 
hundred million dollars more money than he called for. 

It is not the intention of the writer, to follow Mr. Lincoln's career through 
the various acts and measures which arose out of the exigencies oi the 
times, in which was passed the closing years of his life ; to do so properly 
would require a volume double the size of the present, and not only this, 
but our passions and our prejudices have not had sufficient time to regard 
the events of those days with that calmness and impartiality needed for the 
historian's appreciative work. We will, therefore, note but a few leading 
acts of his official life, and first among them for important results is the pro 
clamation of emancipation of the first of January, 1863, and those prelimi- 
nary steps wliieh brought it forth. On the sixth of March, 1862, President 
Lincoln sent a special message to congress recommending a joint resolution 
to compensate all states for their abolition of slavery, as a war measure and a 
measure of public safety. The resolution to compensate was passed in both 
houses and signed by the president ; and in his correspondence with both 
Generals Fremont and Hunter, who had each declared martial law and the 
abolition of slavery within their districts, he gives as the reason tor the revoca- 
tion of the emancipation part of their military proclamations, the fad thai 
they had transcended the lawsol congress which he as executive was to exe- 
cute and not to obstruct. Next to the fatal mistake < if commencing war at all, 
the refusal of the slave states to accept of this proposition was their awful 
blonder. On the twenty second of September following, Mr. Lincoln issued 
the conditional proclamation of emancipation, freeing the slaves of t hose 



16 

states anil those sections of states which should be in rebellion on the 1st 
of January, 1868, thus leaving it to the slave states to say, whether they 
would save their pet institutions by returning to their allegiance or not. Two 
days later the proclamation suspending the writ of huh, us carpus was 
issued. This measure created more universal and well founded dissatisfac- 
tion than any other of the administration. It attacked that dearest right 
of man, the security of personal liberty. No one knew but that it might 
be his necessity next to invoke its aid, but invoke it he would in vain. 
Some of the leading jurists of the day took up their pens in defence of the 
writ against the action of the executive, while one alone, the Nestor 1 of our 
bar, cast his argument in the scale, for its support. The works arising out 
of this subject number many volumes, and are valuable as contributions to 
the science of Constitutional Law. 

Time rolled on. the new year fast approached, yet the insurgent states 
gave no sign of their intention to accept the conditions held out to them in 
the proclamation of the twenty-si nd of September. Nay, more, they in- 
dignantly rejected it. The first of January arrived, and with it came the 
supplemental final words which sealed the fate of human slavery on this 
continent forever. The original draft of the emancipation proclamation 
was purchased by Thomas B. Bryan, Esq., of Chicago, at the north-western 
fair for the Sanitary Commission held at Chicago in the fall of lSlio. and 
tin |. en with which it was signed now belongs to the family of the late 
(ieotge Livermore of Cambridge. Mass.. it having been presented to Mr. 
Livermore by President Lincoln soon after the important document was 
completed, and transmitted to that, gentleman through the Hon. Charles 
Sumner, who has been justly styled " the best informed man on all subjects 
in this country." At the time of the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair in June, 
1S(>4. twenty copies of this proclamation were beautifully printed on parch- 
ment paper, and signed at the request of two gentleman prominently con- 
nected with the movement, by the President and Mr. Seward, which signa- 
tures were afterwards attested as genuine by Mr. Lincoln's private secretary, 
< lolonel John G. Nicolay. One of these very interesting documents is now 
in tin- possession of the writer. 

The year which was heralded in by the proclamation of emancipation 
saw the defeat at Chancellorsville follow fast upon the' still more disastrous 
repulse at Fredericksburg. Tliis was a sad beginning of the year's opera 
tions, and was succeeded a few months later by the invasion of Maryland 
and Pennsylvania by General Lee and his entire army. This movement 
began on the 3d of June, and was accomplished so quickly and apparently 
so easily that the whole country was thrown into a whirl of excitement and 
fearful apprehension. At this juncture, with the army of the Potomac hasl 
oning to dispute the enemy's advance, its commander was relieved, and 
General Meade called to that position. This seemed a most hazardous ex- 
periment. An anii) defeat, d and broken, marching battle in death's 

struggle with a powerful and exultant foe, to have its leader changed when 
on the very verge of conflict, appeared to be a movement calculated more to 
dishearten than strengthen it; but happily the result proved otherwise, 

'Jl'in, Horace Pillli,'\. now ill his nllir!;. I 



17 

The second day after Meade assumed command, the battle of Gettysburg 
began, and it raged with terrific energy for three days. At the close of the 
third day Lee having lost nearly forty thousand men in killed, wounded 
and prisoners, and running short of ammunition, showed that he was too 
exhausted to resume the tight. The contest was decided, the victory won, 
northern soil was freed once more from southern tread. While these glad 
tidings were ringing on the loyal heart of the north, came the welcome 
news from the far-off" city of the west, that the stronghold of the Mississippi 
had surrendered. Thus the 4th of July, 1863, was celebrated with greater 
exultation than would have been merely the eighty-seventh anniversary 
i if our independence. The state of Pennsylvania having purchased its great 
battle-ground, and consecrated it as a National Cemetery for the gallant 
men who fell in its defence, on the l'Jth of November following, the public 
dedication took place with solemn and impressive ceremonies. The formal 
oration was delivered by the nation's gifted son Edward Everett, and Mr. 
Lincoln followed in a brief but appropriate address. The battle of Gettys 
burg was in its result one of the most decisive of the war, and it, with the 
victory at Vicksburg, gave great encouragement to the depressed spirits 
of the people. 

In December, 1863, Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation of amnesty to all 
those engaged in the rebellion, except such as were in the civil or military 
service of the confederate government, or had left the civil or military sn- 
vice of the United States to aid that government, To this proclamation he 
issued a supplementary one on the 24th of the following March, explaining 
its full intents, and defining more particularly those cases which might 
claim its benefit. The time now came when nominations were to be made 
for the occupant of the presidential chair during the four succeeding years, 
and on the 8th of June, 1864, the republican convention met in Baltimore, 
and unanimously chose Mr. Lincoln for re-election. Two months later the 
/;. „i.ii-rnti( convention assembled in Chicago, and nominated Major General 
(ieorge B. McClellan, for his opponent. Andrew Johnson and George II. 
Pendleton received respectively the republican and democratic nominations 
for the vice-presidency. The election of the following November gave Mr. 
Lincoln an overwhelming majority, and on the 4th of March, I860, he was 
re-inaugurated into the presidential office for a second term. His address 
was very brief but touching ; and the words, " with malice towards none, 
with charity for all," with which it closed, will fall hereafter into that sacred 
number of phrases, not scripture, but which men often cite unwittingly, as 
though they were. 

The affairs of the rebellion were hurrying to a crisis. Sherman, the 
ablest and most accomplished soldier cjf the war, had completed his great 
march SO far as to bring its bearing upon the confederate capital, while 
Grant was gradually narrowing the circle which his lines formed around 
the same stronghold. On the 3d of April, Lee was forced to evacuate Rich- 
mond, and on the morning of the 14th, the federal I roups took possession of 
the burning city, and proceeded tO extinguish the flames. Tins virtually 
ended the war. President Lincoln, who had been at City Point for several 
days, visited the city immediately after its capture, in company with his 
youngest sou, and Admiral Porter Heentered it, not as the conquering hero 



IS 

iii triumphal car, but as the private citizen with his little boy by the hand. 
On tlir IHli be returned to Washington, and there received the news that 
(irant, who had been pursuing Lee, bad forced him to surrender. The other 
confederate generals rapidly followed tin- example of their chief, and on the 
26th of May. there was left no organized rebel force anywhere within the ter- 
ritory of tb.' United States. The live days succeeding Mr. Lincoln's return 
from City Point were indeed memorable ones. The surrender oft lie southern 
forces tilled the people with inexpressible joy. Houses were illuminated, 
hells rung-, and salutes tired, and the chief magistrate seemed full of hope 
and happiness. In the midst of the rejoicings at the capital, it was an- 
nounced that the president and General (irant would visit Ford's theatre 
on tin evening of the 14th. (irant declined attending, but the president, 
never willing to disappoint the people, accepted the invitation, and with 
Mrs. Lincoln and one or two friends entered the president's box after the 
performance had begun, lie was greeted with great enthusiasm. As the 
play progressed, a pistol shot was heard and supposed at the instant to be 
a part of the performance, until a man with a bloody dagger in bis hand 
leaped to the stage from the box where was the presidential party, ex- 
clainiing, "Sir « iiipi /■ tyniu ni-s — Th, Smith is tin nijiJ." and then escaped 
behind the scenes. The president had been shot and the assassin had 
escaped. The ball entered the brain, creating a mortal wound, from which 
Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States, expired on the 
morning of the 15th of April, isu.'i, at about the hour of seven. 

The Rev. Dr. (Utrloy, who was pastor of the Presbyterian Church in 
Washington, which Mr. Lincoln usually attended, has given the following 
beautiful account of the scene at the Presidents' death bed : " When sum- 
moned on that sad night to the death bed of President Lincoln. I entered 
the room fifteen or twenty minutes before his departure. All present were 
gathered anxiously around him, waiting to catch his last breath. The 
physician with one hand upon the pulse of the dying man, and the other 
hand laid upon his heart, was intently watching for the moment when life 
should cease. He lingered longer than we had expected. At last the 
physician said : ' lie is gone ; he is dead.' Then I solemnly believe that for 
four or live minutes, there was not the slightest noise or movement in that 
aw ful presence We all stood transfixed in our positions, speechless, breath- 
less, around the dead body of that great and good man. At length the 
secretary of war, who was standing at my left, broke silence, and said: 
' Doctor, will you say anything'.'' 1 replied, ' I will speak to God,' said be 
' do it just now.' And there, by the side of our fallen chief, (iod put it into 
my heart to utter this petition, that from that hour, we and the whole na 
tion might become' more than ever united in our devotion to the cau e oi 
our beloved, imperiled country. When 1 ceased, there arose from the lips of 
the entire company, a fervid and spontaneous ' Amen.' " 

And has not the whole heart of the loyal nation responded •• Amen '" Was 
not that prayer thus offered , responded to in a most remarkable manner': 
When in our. history have the people of this land been found more closely 
bound together in purpose and heart, than when the telegraphic wires hore all 
over the country, the sad tidings thai President Lincoln was dead;; Us, his 
death raised a trice to taction and railed forth a unanimity of sentiment 



19 

that astonished and delighted all. Millions, lately in some degree opposed, 
were now united in feeling, and vied with each other in honoring his 
memory. The day following Ms decease, was that most joyful of all re- 
ligious festivals, Easter Sunday ; and as each minister ascended his pulpit, 
he laid aside his carefully prepared sermon for the day, and from the fullness 
of his heart, gave vent to words of sorrow and consolation for the awful 
calamity which had befallen the nation and created such a universal 
feeling of sadness and horror in the breasts of the whole community. But 
one short week before, the Sunday which opened upon Passion-week, that 
week of darkness and sorrow which contains the day when our Saviour 
was crucified and became the one offering for the sins of the world, each 
congregation had been gathered together to render thanks for the final 
triumphs vouchsafed our arms, and on that occasion one of the most gifted 
Episcopal divines selected for his text the words of St. John, " Tt is expe- 
dient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole 
nation perish not ;" little thinking that words only coincident with the 
hallowed day, would so soon have such a literal fulfillment. 

At noon, on Wednesday of Easter week, was the time appointed for the 
funeral solemnities of the murdered president at the national capital, and 
in every parish of the land, simultaneously were held memorial commemo- 
rative services. A whole people were in tears ; a whole nation flowed down 
in mourning ; a whole country draped in woe. The funeral ceremonies were 
very solemn and impressive, and were attended by all holding official posi- 
tions at the time, in Washington. Alter the services at the White House, 
the body was taken to the Capitol, and there exposed to public view during 
the next day. On the morning of the 31st, the funeral cortege moved for 
bis old home, where was to be the final resting place of the late president, 
taking nearly the sane- route which he had taken when he came from that 
home to assume the presidency, four years before. Baltimore, Harrisburg, 
Philadelphia. New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indian- 
apolis and Chicago, were honored with being the temporary custodians of 
his remains, until at last, on the morning of the third day of May, the 

funeral pr ssiou reached Springfield. Here-, for twenty-four hours his old 

friends and neighbors pressed into the State House, where his body was, to 
gain a last glimpse of that homely but familiar face. At noon of the next 
day. his followers took up their last march, and conducted the remains to 
Oak Ridge Cemetery, a beautiful spot about two miles from the city, where 
with proper and appropriate ceremonies, all that was mortal of Abraham 
Lincoln was consigned to the earth that gave him. 

The vice-president, Mr. Johnson, having succeeded immediately on the 
death of the president to the vacant office, on the 25th of April issued his 
proclamation recommending Thursday May 35th, " as a day for special hu- 
miliation and prayer in consequence of the assassination of Abraham Lin- 
coln, late President of the United States." but that day being Ascension-day 
he issued a second proclamation post] ing the special services until Thurs- 
day, June 1st, when some of the finest productions of the pulpit, were called 
forth. Each church vied with its neighbor in honoring the martyr presi- 
dent, and many, very many, sought to perpetuate its action by placing in 
permanent form the eulogy, sermon or address delivered by its respective 



20 

minister. It is in no slight degree owing to this laudable ambition that 
the H liter is indebted for the materials tin- his present work. 

Mr. Lincoln was certainly a mosl remarkable man. He was undoubtedly 
well fitted for the times in which he lived, and the emergency that con- 
fronted him. He began with a very moderate degree of public confidence 
and sympathy. A large proportion of the community had at the time of 
his first election, and for a considerable period afterwards, a painful Benseof 
distrust, as to his qualifications for the position to which he had been called. 
This distrust was slow to yield. Good things were done, but they were all 
attributed, on account of this preconceived opinion of his ability, to the ex- 
cellence of his advisors, while the evils and the mistakes were all laid to 
him. His physical organization must not be overlooked as one of the 
sources of his success. The great practical men of the world have been, 
not necessarily of large, but of strong bodily frames. To the heathen phi- 
losopher a sound mind in a sound body seemed the greatest good, "mens 
tana in corport miia." The discipline of his early life prepared his frame 
for the laborious duties which were to devolve upon him. It. is true that 
this discipline did not develop his form into a beautiful ami graceful one. 
His warmest friends could not claim that for him, but they could declare 
that " his large eyes in their softness and beauty expressed nothing but be- 
nevolence and gentleness,'' and that a pleasant smile frequently brought 
our more vividly the earnest cast of his features, which were serious even 
to sadness.C He has been called by one of his best friends " a wiry, awkward 
giant." He was six feet four inches high : his arms were long almost dis- 
proportionably so ; his mouth and nose were both exceedingly large; his 
features were coarse, and his large hands exhibited the traces of toil. He 
was not specially attentive to dress, though by no means slovenly. The 
formal politeness i f fashionable life he had not ; though the gentleness of 
the unspoiled child of nature he had. He said once that he had never 
studied the art of paying compliments to women, yet they never received B 
grander one than he paid when he declared " if all that has been said by 
orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were 
applied to American women.it would not do them justice for their con 
duct during the war." It has been stated that he had none of the grossness 
of life. lie was not a licentious man. He was not addicted to tin' use of 
profane language. He did not gamble. He was temperate and he did not 
ase tobacco in any form. Only those who have known the fearful extent 
to which these habits prevail among our public men. can appreciate the 
honor which the absence of them centers upon the late president. His hon- 
esty passed into a proverb, and his integrity was beyond reproach. It 
was not called in question, even in the higlil of political excitement 
and vituperation. His qualities of heart were such as commended him 
to all men. He was naturally disposed to think well of his race. His 
prepossessions were generally in favor of a man. He would rather 
love than hate him; in fact he seemed as if he could not hate him if 
lie would. The entire absence of vindictiveness, either personal or political, 
was one of the ripe fruits of his native tenderness. Was he ever heard to 
have said a hard thing of his opponents, or known to have uttered a single 
word showing personal hate or even personal feeling V Between him and 



21 

his predecessors no parallel can be drawn, for no other president ever held 
the reins of power through four years of virulent rebellion. It is therefore 
impossible to say how much better or how much worse others would have 
done. 

Not graceful nor refined, not always using the English language correctly, 
he proved to be a meet and proper man fur the times. He had the greatness 
of goodness ; not a powerful nor a brilliant intellect, but plain practical good 
sense ; a sincere purpose to do right ; an eminent catholic spirit that was 
ready to listen to all sides, and a firm unshaken belief in the expediency of 
justice. When others with higher and more profound faculties might have 
failed, he succeeded, guided by his matchless sagacity and prudence, and 
common sense and native shrewdness. His thoughts were his own ; they 
were fresh and original, and were clothed with a quaintness, a directness, a 
simplicity of style, peculiar to himself. He had a vein of humor which 
marked him from all other men in his position, and lost him, perhaps, the 
reputation of official dignity ; and yet this very humor, which in most im- 
portant emergencies could not retrain from making the witty repartee or 
telling the pointed anecdote, undoubtedly helped him to endure thi igj ■ fatigues 
and cares under which he would otherwise have sunken. This story of his 
life, which the writer has endeavored to tell with truthful simplicity and 
without any of those adornments usually bestowed so bountifully upon 
similar works, cannot be more appropriately closed than with the words of 
Daniel Webster, on the death of President Taylor, which indeed seem almost 
prophetic of Mr. Lincoln : " He has left on the minds of the country a strong 
impression ; first of his absolute honesty and integrity of character; next 
of his sound, practical good sense ; and lastly of the mildness, kindness and 
friendliness of his temper towards his countrymen." 

Note.— The following bibliographical monograph comprises a feature never before in- 
troduced into a like production, and lor its general accuracy the compiler can vouch. It 
is, the statement appended to each title of tin iiuinlu r of copies piintnl. This has been 
obtained at vast trouble, and although not. entirely perfect is so nearly so, as to merit the 
consideration due to any new step onward in this difficult Held of literature It is hoped 
that the list will be found complete : but that any one noticing inaccuracies or omis- 
sions will communicate the same to the writer. The titles as printed have all been 
transcribed from the original works by the compiler himself, with the exception of 
those marked with an asterisk ; for these and Iheir correctness he is indebted to divers 
friends, not the least among whom he has the pleasure of meutiouing his publisher and 
colaborateur Mr. Boyd. 

c. h. n. 

Puiladelpuia, April, 1870. 



